core – VG247http://www.vg247.com
VG247.comFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:47:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3“At some point, social will converge with core games,” says Kojimahttp://www.vg247.com/2012/06/09/at-some-point-social-will-converge-with-core-games-says-kojima/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/09/at-some-point-social-will-converge-with-core-games-says-kojima/#commentsSat, 09 Jun 2012 20:52:06 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=268381Hideo Kojima has said the trend of adding social aspects to core games will only continue as the world becomes more connected. So, don’t be too shocked if the next Metal Gear contains some social aspects.

Speaking in a widely quoted interview with CVG, Kojima doesn’t see a future where social and core games as perceived as separate entities.

“I don’t think social and core games are separate, both will evolve together, and at some point I feel the social side of things will converge with the core games,” he said. “I think in the future maybe Metal Gear will change in certain ways to integrate social aspects.

“If you look at other games on the market now you can see it’s already happening, so Metal Gear may at some point get involved.”

He goes on to say that in order for every demographic, whether it be core or casual, Kojima said the best from both social and core should be fused together.

Kojima said he is currently working on a game with social aspects, but wouldn’t divulge anything more on the project.

All three were listed for PlayStation 3 release, suggesting PSN release under the PSOne Classics brand.

Fighting Force and its sequel released in 1997 and 1999 respectively, and were developed by original Tomb Raider team Core Design. Both feature beat-’em-up action; the first game proved more popular than the second.

Fear Effect, a 1999 effort from Kronos, has a quiet cult following for its unusual atmosphere of cel-shaded cyberpunk China. It’s often remembered for the exposed flesh of its female characters as much as its thriller storyline.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/03/esrb-suggests-fear-effect-fighting-force-headed-to-psn/feed/5Iwata: “I certainly do not think that Wii was able to cater to every gamer’s needs”http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/30/iwata-i-certainly-do-not-think-that-wii-was-able-to-cater-to-every-gamers-needs/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/30/iwata-i-certainly-do-not-think-that-wii-was-able-to-cater-to-every-gamers-needs/#commentsTue, 30 Aug 2011 17:23:47 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=199408Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has said he feels Wii was miscategorized by the media as a casual gaming console compared to PS3 and Xbox 360, and while he disagrees with the label, he admitted the console did not “cater” to every gamer’s needs.

Speaking in a special edition of Iwata Asks with Shigeru Miyamoto, Iwata said the firm hopes to change the public’s casual perception of the firm with the release of Wii U.

“Shortly after the Wii console was released, people in the gaming media and game enthusiasts started recognising the Wii console as a casual machine aimed toward families, and placed game consoles by Microsoft and Sony in a very similar light with each other, saying these are machines aimed towards those who passionately play games,” he said. “It was a categorization between games that were aimed towards core, and casual. I’ve been having a sense of disagreement as I personally think the definition of a core gamer is much wider, namely, someone who has a much wider range of interests, someone who enthusiastically plays many types of games that challenge different creative directions.

“On the other hand, I certainly do not think that Wii was able to cater to every gamer’s needs, so that’s also something I wanted to resolve. The keyword for our presentation at this year’s E3 is “Deeper and Wider”. With Wii U, I would like to offer this proposal with that concept.

“Of course, with the Wii console I’m sure everyone would agree that we tried really hard to go wider, but even though we worked aggressively to go deeper in certain areas, the general public’s impression that Nintendo was casual grew as time went by. ”

Miyamoto, in response, said he feels it is just “easier” for the media to categorize games into the casual and core genres, but the firm is always “working on a very core level of detail,” and because of this the firm doesn’t take the casual accounts seriously.

“One of the key reasons that such things as the core and the casual exist today is that we decided not to adopt HD on the Wii console,” said Miyamoto. “Of course, besides that there are things like issues with the controller and the challenges that it brings, network functionalities and many other things, but I think HD was the biggest factor that everyone was able to clearly understand the difference.

“In terms of the HD capabilities, Wii U can do something similar, and on top of that, it is equipped with this new controller that adds an entirely new structure to games. I think this is an opportunity for those games that were considered to be core up to now, to evolve into something even more interesting, structurally. In that sense, I do wish all kinds of games would be released, regardless of the debate over core or casual.”

Despite Iwata and Miyamoto feeling the “core vs. casual debate” will probably never see a resolution, Iwata feels Wii U may change all of that.

“I even feel that the barrier that separated the two genres was only something psychological, just an impression that people had about them,” he said. “For example, The Legend of Zelda games were something geared towards the toughest audience, and it has been so from the beginning. So it’s not like at Nintendo we don’t have it in us. But there are quite a number of people who assume that Nintendo is the equivalent of being casual.

“If we are able to break those psychological barriers with Wii U, I feel like we will be able to take our goal of expanding the gaming population even further. It would even be possible to expand our customer base and bring in more people, and out of those new people, there will be those who will find certain controls or elements of deeper gameplay intriguing, and eventually will become passionate game fans. That was the way the history of video games has been, and I want to keep the tradition going so it doesn’t fade away. That, I think is the true meaning of “a game for everyone”. A game for everyone isn’t just wide, but also very deep.

“That’s how it will become everyone’s game.”

Wii U is slated for release sometime next year.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/30/iwata-i-certainly-do-not-think-that-wii-was-able-to-cater-to-every-gamers-needs/feed/5NPD: “Digital gamers” play heavily, buying more games than “Core”http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/27/npd-digital-gamers-play-heavily-buying-more-games-than-core/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/27/npd-digital-gamers-play-heavily-buying-more-games-than-core/#commentsMon, 27 Jun 2011 11:10:12 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=182440According to Gamer Segmentation 2011: The New Faces of Gamers, the latest report from US data monitor NPD, Core Gamers, once considered to be the leading gaming segment, is facing rising competition from “Digital Gamers” for amount of time spent gaming and number of games acquired.

At 18 hours per week, Core Gamers still spend the most amount of time gaming, but Digital Gamers now spend 16 hours a week with games.

NPD didn’t specifically clarify what it means by “Core” and “Digital”.

The average number of games acquired by Core Gamers in the past three months is 5.4 games, while Digital Gamers are the heaviest game acquirers, reporting an average of 5.9 games acquired for any system or device over the same time period.

When looking at the number of digital games downloaded among those who acquired at least one game, it is Digital Gamers and Core Gamers who stand out with the highest number of digital games purchased; for both segments, more than one-third of the total games acquired are digital.

According to the report, Core Gamers represent the highest number of gamers (23 percent), followed by Family+Kid Gamers at 22 percent. Avid PC Gamers and Light PC Gamers both represent 15 percent of gamers, with Mobile Gamers and Digital Gamers trailing.

Most of the gamer segments are playing on at least three systems, NPD said.

“The name of the game in 2011 seems to be choice. Gamers are increasingly branching out to methods of play other than those that the industry has traditionally expected them to use,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.

“Fueled by the growth of smartphones and new tablet devices, mobile gaming continues to accelerate, and what a game is and what it means to be a gamer is evolving, reflecting the rapid nature of change within the industry.”

Digital distribution will move past traditional data delivery methods as the primary was gamers acquire content this year, EA boss John Riccitiello said in January.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/27/npd-digital-gamers-play-heavily-buying-more-games-than-core/feed/6Kinect games line-up to “triple” this year, says Microsofthttp://www.vg247.com/2011/05/13/kinect-games-line-up-to-triple-this-year-says-microsoft/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/13/kinect-games-line-up-to-triple-this-year-says-microsoft/#commentsFri, 13 May 2011 07:11:17 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=170619Microsoft has said it expects to see the games line-up for Kinect to “triple” this year.

In a press release sent out last night to trumpet its NPD successes, the company said that “the size of the Kinect games portfolio will triple by the end of the year.”

“We’ve seen some of the media start to ask the question, ‘When are we going to see more Kinect games coming?’ As we sat there and looked at it we realized we’ve got a lot of games coming and we’re going to show a lot of them at E3,” product manager David Dennis told Joystiq.

In terms of if we would see core action in Los Angeles in three weeks time, all Dennis would merely say was “go big.”

“We know that the core what took Xbox and made it the home for core games, whether they’re first-party games or third-party games. We would certainly never leave that audience behind,” he said.

“So for us and for Phil [Spencer] and the folks over at MGS, it’s not about depriorizing one or the other. It’s about how we go big on any and all: Go big on Kinect games; go big on core games.”

In terms of what to expect from Microsoft at E3, Dennis said that it was “saving a lot of our cards until then.”

Micrsoft’s press conference takes place at the University of Southern California’s Galen Theatre on Monday June 6 from 9am PST (5pm BST). Read our preview of it here.

Part two? Part two?! But what happened in part one?! Were there car chases? Explosions? Was an average Joe like you or me thrust into extraordinary circumstances and forced to shoot/box/interpretive dance his way out?

The suspense is probably killing you. You are probably walking toward the light as we speak, your pulse becoming ever fainter because you need your videogame interview fix right this very moment. But lo and behold! There it is, perched upon yon Internet!

And once you’re all caught up, part two’s waiting for you after the break. Early reviews have declared it even better than part one, and when have early reviews ever been wrong? Click onward to read THQ Core boss Danny Bilson’s thoughts on Guillermo del Toro, the future of game demos, selling cut-scenes, how we should treat talent in the gaming industry, licensed games, and tons more!

So, Guillermo del Toro. The man himself sort of blabbed and spoiled the surprise, but I don’t imagine you can say much since it’s still technically unannounced. Can you describe what it’s like to work with someone like him, though? He’s got quite the resume, after all – just not in videogames.

I think out of respect to my marketing and PR team, we have to save that for a separate interview. Because I’m not even officially allowed to say whether we are or aren’t working with Guillermo. He said a few things about it already, so it’s kind of silly. I don’t want to be silly about it. I have a lot to say to answer the question that’s all really positive. What I can say is we’re good friends, and he’s a big gamer. He knows games. He knows game history and he knows what works and what doesn’t. He has a good sense of it, because he’s a fan. He’s a good friend and I’m enjoying hanging out with him. Later on, when we get more official about it, and if it goes through, and if it happens for sure – because we’re just kicking stuff around – when the PR guys say I can come talk about it, I’ll answer all those questions.

What I can say is that he’s a friend, and he does know games. He’s a gamer. He’s a great guy.

Between Red Faction Battlegrounds and Capcom’s Dead Rising: Case Zero, do you think bite-sized appetizer games have the potential to replace free demos altogether?

Well, Battlegrounds is a completely different game mechanic and different game. Are free demos on the way out? It’s an interesting question, because I think the Dead Rising one was the equivalent of what would have been a demo in the old PC days, right? And it did really well. The question is, will those people buy the big game, or will they say, “Well, that was cool for my five or ten dollars, and I’m good. I’d rather invest my money in something fresh.” It remains to be seen.

We’re gonna keep doing free demos on stuff going forward where we really want to engage players. I mean, there will be a Homefront multiplayer demo. I believe there will. So we’re not really… I know this will sound crazy — but everything isn’t driven [by profit]. We really do things by what we think would be coolest and what would engage the most people. We’re not counting every penny, because I don’t think you can win like that. You have to build a really strong fanbase that’s gonna be fans of our IP and fans of our games and – if we’re really lucky – fans of THQ, where they look at our brand and say, “Wow, there’s a THQ game coming out and I know how they are on quality.” I think that’s what we worry about.

I don’t spend a lot of time sweating over what we’re gonna charge for or not. I just want to get stuff in the most people’s hands, so that they’ll ultimately buy the big game, the $60 bet. That’s how we really are gonna win. If we get a lot of people caring about those games and finding enough value in them, they’ll spend their hard-earned money on them.

During your GDC panel, you were talking about all the ways Red Faction’s leveraging transmedia storytelling, and about how – at the end of the day – it’s all about drawing a player into your world and rewarding them for it. And then you’ve got guys like Activision’s Bobby Kotick, who want to dust off used cut-scenes, repackage them, and put them back on the shelf. Do you think that’s a worst-case scenario for transmedia storytelling in games?

It’s really about the cut-scene. So if he can make a movie that’s really great that people are willing to pay for, that’s great. The public will decide. It’s the same thing I keep saying. You know, money’s tight, and if people find entertainment value in it because it’s awesome content, then they’ll pay for it. If you just put it in the category of charging for cut-scenes, of course it sounds bad. But, to give him credit, if he can put up a great movie experience that’s worth people’s money like going to the movies, then people will pay for it. The content drives. It dictates everything.

You’ve opened your doors to some extremely diverse talent as of late. Tim Schafer, Tomonobu Itagaki, and del Torro stand out the most, of course. At this point in the gaming industry’s maturation, is that the key? Is it sink or swim, with diversity as your Finding Nemo-branded water wings?

Absolutely. Once a technology platform is stable, it’s all about the content. And people aren’t gonna buy a game just because it has great graphics or great activity. It also becomes a great experience. And where does great, inspired content come from? It comes from inspired people. It comes from talent. So I can absolutely say that the strategy at THQ – our core strategy – is talent first.

We’re creating a system where we can attract the best talent in the world, because we’re not driven by what a marketing guy says we need to make. We’re absolutely driven by the inspiration of an artist. We’re gonna announce another piece of talent in two weeks that’s a big game-maker. On October 19, I believe, we’re gonna announce this other big game-maker joining us.

It’s just like the movie business. People are interested in seeing films made by people like Guillermo because of who they are – because they have a consistent record of doing inspired work. Steven Spielberg, for instance, has done that for years. It’s not about technology or all of that anymore, and the platforms not gonna change next year. It’s like, where do you go? You got to content. So you see us building a talent roster of people we’re associated with who are great entertainers. That’s who the people you listed are, and that’s who the next guy is who you’re gonna see come in to THQ.

Are you hoping that might one day become the prevailing mentality in the gaming industry? Because, right now, there’s sort of a separation: in film, we’ve got guys like Tim Burton, who can put his name on a packet of stale crackers or – worse – Alice in Wonderland and pack theaters for weeks. Whereas, with videogames, there are people out there who don’t even know the difference between a Treyarch Call of Duty and an Infinity Ward Call of Duty.

Right, but it was established by Vince and Jason and their team at Infinity Ward. And that is a vision that really started on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. I actually was around EA at that time. And that immersive “you in the war movie” vision was started before them, but they’re really good at picking out cinematic moments, pacing, and all of that. So the Treyarch stuff is modeling what they did.

So I do think it came from talent. The people don’t identify that. It’s about what Call of Duty means to people. And it means a great experience. But that did come from two really inspired guys – maybe three — and their whole team, who started at 2015 back on Allied Assault. It does come from people. A brand doesn’t just come from a brand. It comes from inspired artists. That game did come from inspired artists.

And whether it’s Treyarch who have to find their own inspiration, they’re following a lead and a model that’s been set, yet they’re smart enough over there that it feels like Black Ops gives us a fresh experience in that world. It’s not just Modern Warfare 3 and more of the same. So it did come from talent; it just got disseminated and spread around to multiple teams who are still building on that unique vision.

But I guess what I was wondering was…

…Can you sell the name above the title? Well, Tim Schafer’s one, right?

Well, sure. Any hardcore gamer who’s DNA is 50 percent Twitter and 50 percent videogame blogosphere could spot Schafer in a crowd. But what about everyone else? Isn’t that sort of why Schafer’s games don’t dominate the charts?

It might become that way if you start putting the names above the title. I mean, there was the old story of American McGee’s Alice, which sort of came before it was earned in a way. And he’s gotten a lot of mileage off that, and he’s making a sequel to it. I don’t know if the new one says American McGee’s Alice or not. Does it? I don’t know. He’s a good guy, but he’s not Spielberg. I think the name goes above the title when it validates itself. When we know it’s a marketing tool and we know people really care, then it goes up there and becomes its own brand in a way. But it can’t go before the content. There has to be some content people love. Then if they associate it with that name and if it makes sense and it gets people to play it and it sells games, then you put it up there. And it could happen. Absolutely. Why not?

On an entirely different note, earlier this year, UFC Undisputed 2010 didn’t exactly take a beating at retail, but it didn’t live up to your lofty sales expectations. Why do you think that is?

Well, because I don’t think we offered enough new features. It’s way better than the first game. It’s tremendously better, and it sold a lot of units. But we had ridiculously high expectations for it.

What we learned on day-one was that we weren’t giving the consumers enough value for everybody to buy it again. The hardcore fans bought it again and could see the differences. Giving it some more time to get more features in there for more people – so that if you bought UFC 1 and 2, you have to buy UFC 3 because it’s loaded up with all kinds of new features. And also, we’ll have more playability for newbie gamers. It won’t just be so hardcore, so we can get to a bigger mass audience. It will have more for all UFC fans.

But again, it takes more time. You can’t just jam it out there. We could probably sell a million-and-a-half units every year, and that’s a lot of games; I never want anyone to think it’s not a big hit, because it is. But we want it to be a monster. And to be a monster, we’ve got to make it essential – for everybody who owned 1 or 2, when 3 comes out, they have to own it. And that takes more time and money.

I’ve got to go in one minute, so give me your biggest question.

Ok, here it goes: Clearly, you’re heavily involved with the 3DS. What about the PSP2?

I can’t comment on that.

I didn’t think so. But I still have, like, 40 seconds! Going back to the UFC thing, do you think we’re past the days when a license alone could sell a game? Do you think the general audience’s videogame IQ has gone up?

Absolutely. They have experience, right? Games are part of our lifestyle. Games aren’t cool just because they’re games. A license can’t sell a game. A great game that’s great without the license can be enhanced with the license. That’s what I think.

We don’t have a lot of licensed stuff in Core. We have Warhammer 40K, which we love. It’s a deep IP. It’s a fantastic world. We don’t love it because there’s billions of people painting those Warhammer models all over the world; it’s just a great universe that we want to be in and play in. We have UFC. We have WWE. And we have one unannounced thing that I inherited that we’re making really, really cool. I can talk about it later. But we’re really into original IP.

When you hear “THQ,” what springs to mind? Wrestling games? Ni-ni-ni-ni-ni-ni-ni-ni-Nickelodeon? Well then, you might want to crawl out from under that rock you’ve spent the last few years living underneath.

Where’s Tim Schafer these days? THQ. How about Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki? Same. And what’s this about Guillermo del Toro? The bottom line: THQ’s come a long, long way – but it’s far from done.

Leading the way has been THQ Core boss Danny Bilson, who was kind enough to take some time out from his busy schedule of interacting with some of the most interesting people in the industry to chat with little ol’ us. So we basically projectile vomited questions in his face, which he was surprisingly ok with.

Click past the break to hear Bilson’s thoughts on core Move/Kinect games, the need for creativity in the gaming industry, how we should handle touchy subjects like the recent Medal of Honor controversy, 3D, Tim Schafer, and plenty more!

[Interview by Nathan Grayson]

THQ’s Move/Kinect stance seems to be more casually oriented. A quote a couple weeks back pointed to less expensive, easier-to-develop games. Is there any interest in designing a hardcore game for either platform, though? I want to physically knock things down in Red Faction, basically.

Oh, there is by me if there’s an install base. You know, we just have to see how it goes. I have an idea for a game that’s just big and expensive and really deep. We just gotta see if there’s an install base that’ll support it.

Our group is doing a really expensive game for Move and Kinect right now. We just decided to invest a lot more money in it. It’s coming out sooner rather than later, but we haven’t officially done the big announcement on it. But literally, we got to the point in development, and we decided “You know what? We gotta make this the best in the class of what it is.” So my group on the core side, we’re actually spending a lot of money on one game in particular that’s gonna ship at the end of March. But we haven’t quite announced it yet.

What the Kids and Casual group is doing, I’m not even sure what they have on there. That’s not my group. I know they have Biggest Loser and they might have… if I say, I might be wrong. So I don’t want to say. But we have one big game on Move, Kinect, and Wii. We’ll be announcing it really soon.

With Homefront, you’re launching a new IP pretty late in the current console cycle. What’s that like? Surely it’s a pretty big risk. Otherwise, we’d be seeing other publishers do it more frequently, right?

I don’t even think about the console cycle anymore, because when is the next console gonna be? I’m just worried about launching a great IP. I mean, in this world, most of the rules like that – all bets are off.

Early in a cycle, late in a cycle – I think only great games are gonna sell, and when Homefront launches, it’ll have been in development for three years. We’ve invested a tremendous amount of people and money and time into it to give everybody an incredible, unique experience. It has uniqueness in the shooter category, and it also have familiarity along with sort of the Call of Dutys and Medal of Honors and stuff. And if you do really well in that genre, I believe you can sell a lot of units and justify the price.

But I don’t think about early or late in the console cycle anymore, because we don’t even know when the next console cycle is. All bets are kind of off. The world has changed, and what we have to do is make great games and give people new places to go. And Homefront absolutely is a new place to go.

Between Homefront, Darksiders, and Costume Quest, you’ve been focusing a lot on new IPs lately. Do you think you’re setting a pace the rest of the industry should follow? Do we need more fresh faces and environments?

Absolutely. I think there’s something called IP fatigue. You know, you can sequel and sequel and sequel, but if you don’t innovate on that idea, people are gonna go “Why do I want to spend $60 to play more of what I’ve played before when, right next to it, is something brand new?”

Take Red Dead [Redemption]. It was brand new. I’d rather go someplace new. If I only have one choice when I walk into a store – and I don’t know how many people can buy two or three games at a time since they’re so expensive. But if I had $60 to invest in May of last year, I’d have bought Red Dead, because I haven’t been to the wild west in a really great way in a game. I’d pick that over other experiences that were around at the time. So I’m a big believer in fresh experience – letting people go to places they haven’t been before. And that’s a way we want to compete.

So Homefront, again, has familiarity in sort of a modern combat shooter experience, but it absolutely is a different place. I mean, you’re fighting in an occupied United States where all the familiar is different. It’s not a military game per se – except in the multiplayer. The single-player’s about four civilians fighting. So it’s really unique as it can be without breaking too far out of the genre.

But I’m a big believer in original IP. Franchises, I think, have to use the same brand, but give somebody a really unique experience in that brand. Don’t just do the same thing plus. Don’t just make it a continuation. Because as I said in that panel, a fictional hook where you’re continuing a story – the first thing you’ve got to do is make sure everybody finishes the game. And when fiction takes over and becomes the driver, that’ll be interesting. But it hasn’t happened yet.

So I like to say that we’ve got to make a fresh experience in a familiar wrapper with sequels. Like, I know what Homefront 2 is. It’s not a repeat of Homefront 1. It doesn’t take place in the same place or anything like that.

Speaking of Homefront, it’s obviously fictional, but it has something of a real-world basis. Meanwhile, EA’s Medal of Honor recently got a slap in the face for cozying up a little too close to reality. Do you think war games should continue to have some degree of separation from current events – ala Homefront or Call of Duty? Or is there a place for videogames in the modern global sphere?

Well, my particular issue about playing in a current event is, if people are bleeding and dying, and you want to have an entertainment experience, you have to be sensitive to the fact that people are bleeding and dying. And I – me personally – may not want to go there today.

It’s not about respect for the troops or anything like that. It’s kind of a really painful reality; war is not a pretty thing. And if we’re creating entertainment experiences around it, I would vote for going somewhere a little fantastic – a little more of war movie. That’s what it is. I would like to be in a war movie more than I’d want to be in a real war. I think that’s kind of the choice I’ll make when I’m in control.

And it’s not about respect or disrespect or anything like that, because I know that the guys on Medal of Honor who are friends of mine have tremendous respect for the troops. They had Tier One guys working with them on the game. So it’s not [a respect issue]. It’s just about taste. I’m a big believer in escapist entertainment, so I want to escape. I don’t want to go right into the headlines and be right there. And I don’t even know if that’s exactly what it is. It might have worked for them, because they got tremendous publicity around it. People were talking about it and all of that.

But we’ll do more of the Homefront type of thing, which is speculative fiction. And it’s very reality based in a future reality. We did tons of research on what if. We worked with people in Washington DC on it and spoke with experts on East Asia. How might it happen? How could that kind of an invasion happen? So it’s believable in its own reality, but nobody’s gonna be saying, “Oh my God, this is happening. I don’t want to go there.”

You’re the latest publisher to take Tim Schafer and Double Fine under your roof. I love Tim – seriously, Tim, call me – but I have to admit: his games have a history of cult-hit status. As in, there’s not a whole lot of money to be made. Why’d you decide to publish Double Fine’s games?

Well, I’m a big fan. I think Grim Fandango is one of the masterpieces of videogame history. And then it just comes down to what game we’re making, and do we believe it can work? The games we’re publishing with Tim so far are smaller bets. They’re downloadable games, but they have that sensibility and wit. Costume Quest comes out soon, and it’s a Halloween game. It’s really cool. And we have another one that hasn’t been announced yet with him.

I do what I believe in, and I believe that he is going to have a breakout massive hit. Because what happens with his games is, they may not sell initially, but they last. And they get passed around. And I think there’s a lot of equity in Tim Schafer that people like you – your age – are big fans and people my age are big fans. It’s just the next one of his is gonna be the financial windfall. You know, it really is, and I hope to be the publisher that publishes his next big game.

So we’re really big at THQ now on attracting the best, most creative innovative talent in the world to back up the strategy of giving people new experiences. So we’re very anxious to do more stuff with Tim. It’s not about what happened in the past; it’s about what’s gonna happen in the future.

Lately, you’ve been announcing games pretty early in the dev cycle. Devil’s Third isn’t set to launch until 2012, and – for all we know – Metro 2034’s release year could be in its title. Why announce things so early? Is there a strategy behind that?

Yeah, there is. One, we’re excited about them. Ok, it’s not exactly a marketing strategy, but we’re excited. We’re a company in transition at THQ. What we want to talk about is where we’re going – not where we’ve been. Am I worried that people aren’t gonna remember Devil’s Third two years from now? Two years from now, we’re gonna have an insane marketing campaign leading up to the game’s release, so whether or not you’ve heard of it yet, you’re gonna hear of it then.

But what we’re trying to say to fans and gamers and the community is we are making cool stuff. And the future of THQ is about making really exciting games. It’s a very different THQ than the THQ of the past. It has a lot to do with our brand and letting people understand where we’re headed.

Also, I’m a big game fan, right? I read all the magazines and everything. I’m interested. I want to know. I’m not saying to that company, “Gee, why’d you announce two years from release?” The only negative for me would be “Aww man. I’ve got to wait two years for that?” That’d be the only thing, and I have no problem with that as long as – when we get to the release window – we pour it on like a movie launch. Then we’ll sell our units.

Obviously, 3D’s a big component of this year’s GDC Online. Many developers I’ve spoken to basically consider it a foregone conclusion that 3D’s the future. Gamers, though, don’t seem to agree. Some of them even compose small novels on message boards about why it’s a waste of time. So where do you stand? Is 3D going to be universal in a few years? Or is it just a passing fad?

I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t even want to comment on whether I think it’s the next big thing or not. It’s not that hard to do, first of all. Not that many people have 3D TVs, first of all, so how much does it really matter? It adds kind of a coolness factor to De Blob. Our PS3 and 360 version is gonna be in 3D. It gives it a position and just another interesting thing to say about it, because it looks really cool in 3D.

It’s just fun. But it’s not for the masses. I mean, it’s all about the average gamer and what TV they’re playing on. And that’s who the game’s built for. It doesn’t take much to adjust it for 3D, and it was worth it for us to invest in that.

The other game is Metro. Metro 2033, when you put it through the Nvidia card on the PC, looks ridiculous. Because the way they built the game, they modeled everything. The Russians model everything. And it looked great, and Nvidia sponsored a bunch of stuff with it. So 2034 is gonna be in 3D on consoles also.

Will we do the little adaptations on everything, though? It’s just like Move or Kinect. If everybody winds up in 3D land with 3D TVs, we’ll be there. But on those two games, we thought it would be interesting for both of them because of the kinds of experiences they offer.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell said in the firm’s full-year earnings call last night that core games can’t break even in the 700-800,000 unit range any more.

“On the core titles, yeah, 700,000, 800,000 units, those days unfortunately we think are over,” he said in answer to a question about break even levels.

“But within the kids segment, the break evens are very low – I mean, depending on the title, how many SKUs you do, per SKU your break-evens are, depending on the platform, could be somewhere between even 100 and 400,000 units.”

The target sales level was “fairly low in the kids and mass appeal as you might suspect but much higher on the core titles,” the exec added.